IF NOTHING ELSE WAS HAPPENING ..

We would be bowling down to “Bogey Knights” of Devonport, now under new management and officially rebranded under its fond forces nickname.

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H & W Knight & Sons has sold off MoD surplus from a junction of alleys by the waterside for three generations. In recent years, it has shrunk a bit but remained a cult chaos loved by sailors, entrepreneurs, interior decorators, people building robots in their sheds and anyone who appreciates a giant ball of hairy string or a tin of primer suitable for submarine use.

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In the navy, they tell us, every Knight was always Bogey – apparently a reference back to the days of the press gangs which worked the pubs at night under a boss, the one who laid his hand on your collar, known as The Bogeyman. Whatever the reason, Knight’s Surplus of Plymouth became Bogey Knights in forces lingo. And now it is trading under that name on Facebook and eBay and so on as part of a relaunch which includes a bit of a tidy of the yard itself. Find it by the carpark at PL1 4LB or online HERE

Beau Tunks, the man who bought the business, has a history in scrap dealing. He and his family team have been overhauling the yard and its online presence since beginning of March, along with all the old hands who wanted to stay.

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He says: “We know what people love it for. Just trying to make it a little bit more user friendly.”

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* Got a good story about a bargain from Bogey’s? We’ll fix a ball of hairy string for the best – the tool for all jobs.

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We are hoping for the mother of all gardening shows at the end of all this.

Here in The Shed, we normally dispense seed like a miser – every one a little investment, not to be wasted. This year we are using them like gambling chips. We were chucking them out in every corner and spare pot as soon as the sun came out, and so far the weather gods have given them a break.

Most of the messages we are getting are saying much the same. If you have a garden, it is now your salvation. If you have a shed in it, you are doubly blessed. If you have seeds, they are better than bitcoin.

With the rest of the world changing shape every hour, we are all being sent back to the step-at a-time progress of cultivation, improvisation and repair. Suddenly, the whole world has discovered The Repair Shop. And we’re all fixing something – and throwing things away.

PS: A project in progress here in The Shed is The Dartmoor Repair Shop – a list of smiths, leather workers, hi-fi tinkerers, clock repairers and all the other new heroes. Nominations open. Right at the moment we could do with somebody to take a look at the ribbon drive on a nice old Underwood typewriter?

1932 Underwood portable, with glass-covered keys – all working except needs attention from a screwdriver – free to good home.

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Another Emergency project which is passing time for many of us, it seems, is going through the vinyl for tracks we might want to leave to the nation.

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Long-lost discoveries here include The Meters, an American funk outfit, on a great work-out instrumental called TippitoesHERE

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Also from the Charly label, a London soul label, Ella Washington singing He Called Me Baby. Times have changed and a lot of people will no longer love the lyric about being desperate with yearning for a bastard who used her and moved on. But it’s still some song. And then or now, you could sing She Called Me Baby and it would be true too. Hear the country in it …

Times had a letter saying: “This virus has a lot to answer for. I have this strange man hanging about the house. He says he lives here.”

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Sunday Times had a letter saying: “The obvious answer to pandemonium at supermarkets is to ban trolleys.”

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Touching wood but although everyone knows someone who knows of someone taken really bad by the virus, it has yet to hit here hard as far as we can hear.

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Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian had the line: “Just as there are no atheists on a sinking ship, there are no free-marketeers in a pandemic.”

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TV salvation lately has been Better Call Saul, the throwback from Breaking Bad, tracing the arrival in it of bent lawyer Jimmy McGill and his transition into Saul Goodman, street adviser (Tsall good man) and consultant to the most dangerous looking Mexican bandits in the history of tv. It looked at first like stretching a good idea a little too far but it has the same pace and style which made Breaking Bad and all the bit-parters rescued from that series put in brilliant character performances. Netflix is just bringing the fifth and final series to a finish, at the point where Walter White comes in. Question still to be answered, next Tuesday, is whether Jimmy can finally deserve the love of his brilliant girlfriend (now officially wife, so she can’t testify against him). Answer, almost certainly No. Not a dud episode.

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For those with time for a longer read, there is a new chapterof local history posted in the For Discussion page which should come up HERE

1 Comment

I bought a huge colander from Bogey Knights about 30 years ago, stamped with the pusser’s arrow and dated, used it for years as a planter, ivy and geraniums looked well in it, now having a smaller garden it became surplus to requirements and I passed it on , hope you’re still looking after it Chris and it hasn’t been ditched in the recent clear out of The Shed.